Tainted
by Iggy - Essence of Angst
Summary: One night, Ayane is called out and a horrible truth is revealed to her. Brief ficlet.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, just a few games.

_Note: This very brief story was just written for fun, to go more in-depth regarding Ayane's feelings and reaction when she was told about her birth._

_-

* * *

- _

"_Ayane… I have something to tell you_." There was a brief pause before she continued speaking, her voice impregnated by sobs. "_I am… your mother_."

Ayane knelt there in shock. The woman who sat behind the curtained screen, the woman who had never treated her with anything other than kindness, the woman who had always tried to include her with Kasumi and Hayate… and the one woman who had tried to defend her honour against Shiden.

_"She is nothing. You should have never allowed her to stay in the first place."_

"_Please, Shiden… she is not –"_

_His voice rose, barely concealing the full extent of his anger. "She is the daughter of that wretched bastard! Her blood taints us all!"_

"_She is not a bad child…" the woman protested in a weak effort to defend her._

"_She was conceived in an act of utmost disgrace! She is good for _nothing!"

Little had they known that Ayane herself could hear their constant arguments about her proper 'place' in the clan. She often stayed up past her bedtime to listen to heated debates on what sort of child she "really" was in the hopes to discover more about her past.Even at such a young age, she was able tosense there was more to her birth than what she had been told, which was almost nothing. But however loud the words were, they never seemed to reveal very much.

And then, the woman known as Ayame, who had taken to caring for the purple-haired girl herself, had called Ayane out to tell her something. Now, she knelt there in stunned silence, having just been revealed a truth she never would have expected to hear.

Her throat was dry and she swallowed, staring intently at the screen. "Who is… who is my father?" The words were barely audible, nearly choked out. She almost did not want to hear the answer.

The answer came after a hesitant pause. "Raidou."

The girl stared at her, eyes wide with shock, fear and disgust. She could barely speak. "R – Raidou? But… you can't possibly mean…"

There was no other way to avoid it. "You were conceived through rape, Ayane. But I… I have never loved you any less because of it. You are still my daughter," Ayame pleaded, hoping she was wrong, that she had not just emotionally broken all ties with the girl.

Ayane got to her feet, her mind still struggling to absorb the horrifying fact.

"I'm sorry," Ayame repeated, her voice thick with tears. "Please, Ayane… I ask for your forgiveness…"

Her daughter's gaze had grown cold. "That bastard is my father? So the villagers have been right." The shock was starting to fade; her tone had quickly grown cold although there was a hint of underlying sadness in it. "I _am_ a bastard child."

That explained everything. Why the villagers were always so suspicious of her, why they kept shooting her dark looks. Why Hayate had never wanted to play with her when she was just a small child, why Kasumi was always shooting her sympathetic looks when she thought Ayane was not paying attention. Kasumi did not necessarily know the entire truth, but she had to have known something. Even those who did not fully understand sensed there was a darker truth hidden in the shadows, something that separated Ayane from the rest of the them although it was never spoken in public and rarely spoken in private discussions. It explained why no one would trust her, and why bullies always seemed to pick on her for no reason.

It explained why she had always been such an outcast.

"No," her mother said, interrupting her self-loathed thoughts. "You are my daughter."

Ayane stared at her a moment longer, then proceeded to the doorway.

"Ayane…"

The girl's next statement made her blood run cold. "I'll kill him myself."

"Ayane… please…"

"Thank you for telling me the truth," she said, neutralizing her tone but avoiding her mother's gaze.

"Ayane, please listen. You cannot just go and –"

The girl turned around and locked an accusative gaze with her mother. "He may be my father in blood, but that bastard will sure as hell _never_ be my real father. Whatever you have to say doesn't matter. You've told me the truth and there's nothing else you can do." Her voice softened slightly as she seemed to think for a moment. At last she spoke again. "And… I thank you… for being my mother."

With that said, she exited the building.

Ayame gazed sadly at the spot where her daughter had knelt. "I have never loved you any less because of it," she repeated sadly. "But it seems in telling you the truth that I've lost your respect for me… and now I fear I have lost you as my daughter."

-

_

* * *

- _

Completed: July. 4th, 2006

_Not edited by another beta-readerdue to its simplicity and brief event._


End file.
